John Williams Will Expand His ‘Star Wars’ Composing Legacy By Scoring ‘Episode IX’

In a development that can’t possibly be tagged as shocking news, Star Wars is closing out its latest trilogy with the composer that’s handled the music for all nine films in the series saga.

Chatting with Variety about his decorated career with awards season as the backdrop, John Williams confirmed that he is indeed returning to provide the score for Star Wars: Episode IX.

“I would very much like to complete that,” said the franchise mainstay.

Williams handling the score for Episode IX seemed like the most logical outcome considering his status as sole Star Wars series composer, but he hasn’t been the only one providing music for the film side of the franchise since the Disney era. Rogue One‘s music was done by Michael Giacchino and the upcoming Solo picture has John Powell at the helm with Williams contributing the theme. He explained to Variety the interconnected nature of the classic and the new in these later works.

“When we see Rey, we want to hear Rey’s theme,” said Williams. “And when the Force is referred to or felt, we want to hear the Force theme, and so on. We hope that these references make sense to the fans and make the aural connections that we want them to have.”

Star Wars: Episode IX is scheduled to arrive in theaters on December 20, 2019. Here’s hoping you get the closure from the latest trilogy that those of us campaigning to get Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman to do the score never will.